Just got a kick. Need help!

[helios840]

Hello everyone, this is a long time coming. Been vaping for a little over three years now and this is the first time having to post. Anyway. I just got a kick for my mechanical mod. I want to use it for all my tanks, not just my rebuildables. Plus a Nautilus on a Nemi just looks oh so beautiful. Anyway, I want to test if it's putting out the right voltage. I tested it with a screw on voltage meter and it doesn't work because the kick I have is pulse modulated. Will a regular cheap voltage meter work?(Never bought one, never needed it) Or if not, what will? And one more thing. The kick i have is from smok. The dial is confusing. Can anybody explain the notches and what is the semblance of the diagram. I'm counting a lot more notches than there are supposed to be watts on this thing. And it doesn't look like half measures either. Any advice would be much appreciated. Thanks!

 

[FlamingoTutu]

welcome to ECF Helios! I'm kicking you back to the top because I don't know the answer but many people do. The "help" around here seems to be pretty thin tonight. Don't give up, someone will answer.

 

[helios840]

Thank you FlamingoTutu. The help is much appreciated. I like the name.

 

[Rickajho]

PWM voltage has to be interpreted by a specially designed meter. Any standard meter doesn't sample fast enough, let alone calculate an "average" of what it's reading to give any meaningful voltage readout for PWM devices. If you bought a DMM it could give you a different voltage reading every time you applied the test leads to measure it again.

The only guy who was making something that could read PWM quit doing it because it ate up too much time and he was losing money. I've asked him to please consider making it again, even if meant a 50% price increase, but he never replied to PM's left for him on two different forums.

I haven't looked at the printed instructions for a Smok Kick in a while, don't recall that they said the numbers on the pot actually translated to anything, except low is less and high is more. It's just a stock electronics pot with a pre-printed number scale on it. As someone else had said it's a "suck it and see" method of finding the setting you want.

 

[rondasherrill]

The Kick is a simplistic design with one point in mind. You don't need to know the exact voltage, or even the exact wattage. In short, you don't need to know the numbers. The idea is, you stick it in your device, adjust it until you get the best vape, and then forget it exists.

And no, even a simple voltage meter won't read the PWM right. I have the same Kick in my Nemi clone.

 

[Rickajho]

The Kick is a simplistic design with one point in mind. You don't need to know the exact voltage, or even the exact wattage. In short, you don't need to know the numbers. The idea is, you stick it in your device, adjust it until you get the best vape, and then forget it exists.

And no, even a simple voltage meter won't read the PWM right. I have the same Kick in my Nemi clone.

Sort of. It's more like adjust it, stick it in your device, vape - and keep repeating that until you get the best vape. The having to remove it and reinsert it in order to make an adjustment is a pain.

 

[rondasherrill]

Sort of. It's more like adjust it, stick it in your device, vape - and keep repeating that until you get the best vape. The having to remove it and reinsert it in order to make an adjustment is a pain.

I didn't know that was a thing. I've only recently got a kick to use in a Nemi clone, and I don't have to remove it to adjust it. I just unscrew the top cap.

 

[Rickajho]

I didn't know that was a thing. I've only recently got a kick to use in a Nemi clone, and I don't have to remove it to adjust it. I just unscrew the top cap.

Lucky you. (Seriously.) For people using "other" - not so much. I even modded a bottom feed Vmod to work with one - still have to take it out of that thing even to make adjustments. But the OP has a Nemi so that's good! There's a lot of cheap mod love out there where you have to do that loooong journey down de tube with a Kick and pull it back out again every time.

 

[rurwin]

It would be very difficult to measure the voltage with a multimeter. Firstly, you couldn't trust what it said because even ones that purport to measure RMS voltage assume a sine wave (unless you pay a lot) and the kick produces a square wave. But more importantly it would be next to impossible to get the probes into the 510 connection and guarantee not to short out the mod/kick, especially if one hand is pressing the fire button.

 

[Bunnykiller]

only meter I can think of at the moment would be an older Simpson analog meter.... only issue I can think of is it may give you a slightly lower reading than the actual hi value of the pulse.... but it should be close enuf tho..

 

[helios840]

Thanks for all the responses. So I guess I'll just play with the wattage until it tastes good. It's a pain to do but I'll survive. Thanks again.

 

[tj99959]

A Evolv Kick-1 can be read with a simple screw on meter, but it's a 'step-up' booster only. The Evolv Kick-2 is both a "step-up and 'step-down" regulator, but can not be read with a volt meter of any kind. You would need a scope, and the signal will appear as reverse polarity (negative voltage)

Add:
When measuring the voltage of a Kick-1 (or a clone), there MUST be an atomizer installed. Otherwise all the Kick would be putting out is the resistance search pulse.